The state of Arizona has taken a novel approach amidst the Common Core wars. The state will not abandon the new standards; they will simply not call them by the same name. Instead of Common Core, they will now be known as “Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards.’’ The idea Read more
In today’s information age, educators are being inundated with research, resources, and tools – all aimed at improving education, instruction, and student performance. How can educators sift through all this information to find resources that are worth one’s time and attention? In this month’s issue brief, we focus on online Read more
The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), one of the leading organizations providing accreditation for teacher education programs across the country, recently released a new set of standards that its leaders hope will “elevate the teaching profession and improve outcomes for students.” Mary Brabeck, dean of the Steinhardt Read more
A new guide from Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Pacific provides a framework, suggested activities, and activity forms to build capacity among teachers, administrators, staff, and other stakeholders for using data more comprehensively and effectively in education decision making. The Regional Educational Laboratories partner with states and districts to build capacity. Read more
Are students being forgotten in the midst of the political battle that is ramping up over Common Core? It sure seems so. Conservative groups across the country, as well as a few liberal ones, have escalated their campaign to awaken Americans to the supposed dangers of the Common Core. An Read more
A few weeks ago, the state of Florida, while stopping short of withdrawing from participation in Common Core, revoked its participation in PARCC, the joint state-run assessment service employed by many states to assess how students are meeting the demands of the new Common Core curriculum.The Council for Chief State Read more
A suburban Colorado county, Douglas County, has taken conservative school reform efforts farther than any other large school district has before. Douglas county, which has 65,000 students, making it larger than Washington DC schools and as large as Detroit schools, has pursued an aggressive program of school vouchers and market-based Read more
As the internationally benchmarked Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are adopted in states across the country, educators are seeking ways to support an increasingly diverse student population to meet these more demanding expectations. The likelihood that students will achieve the aims of the standards will be substantially shaped by how Read more
Two recent studies have shown that Race to the Top, the Obama Administration’s signature education initiative to help states close achievement gaps, has not lived up to its billing. The first, by Elaine Weiss of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, argues that a lack of time, resources, and tools Read more
The National School Boards Association‘s Center for Public Education is out with a recent report that says teaching the Common Core will require a professional development overhaul. Most teachers only receive workshop-based training for professional development, even though research shows it can be ineffective, the report says. And while teachers Read more
What can school districts do to ensure that schools have the best principals? Deanna Burney and Robert Hughes, writing for the Harvard Education Letter, propose that districts create a growth-oriented system of principal professional development and certification and tie this system to principal evaluation. Following is the basic idea for Read more
If you are an educator of any stripe, you know that there is a multiplicity of online resources and technology tools available that, if utilized properly, could bring greater efficiency to the field of education and recognizable gains for students in classrooms. The potential of these ed-tech tools is not Read more
Public schools are supposed to be funded by public tax dollars, right? It turns out that many wealthy school districts or town-run schools within larger districts, especially in California, regularly garner significant funds from private donations. For example, in Hillsborough, CA, public funds spread to a total of $13,500 in Read more
Teach for America is no stranger to controversy. For some, they are the poster child for the new wave of urban education and should be commended for the way that they are able to recruit highly talented, motivated college graduates to devote at least 2 years to teaching in nigh-needs Read more
The recession, questions concerning the connection between teachers and student test scores, and the increased importance of federal grants have all combined in recent years to diminish the role of NBPTS national certification for teachers. Currently, the number of teachers with this designation sits around 102,000. But with the recent Read more
Parker Palmer of the Center for Courage and Renewal is a well-known author and speaker in the field of education. He is worried about the current direction of education reform, which seeks to use more value-added measures to judge student, teacher, and school proficiency. Here are his thoughts: “We’re always Read more